Deconstructing the DNF

Something about those three letters stands out, and I’ll be honest, it’s something I’m very strict about with the athletes I coach:  if you’re going to DNF you’d better have a damn good reason for it.

Racing is a process of learned behaviors, both at a cellular level and also at the cognitive or mental level.  In triathlon our body first learns to train; over time and with the right stimuli we learn to race, and eventually with an amazing amount of effort we may learn to win.

I’m not so naïve as to think that everybody is capable of winning races; it takes a certain amount of heredity and an amazing amount of support for that to happen.  But I am sure everyone is capable of winning their own personal battles and achieving some amazing goals if they’re committed enough!

June 5th, 2008.  Exiting the cold Vancouver water in absolute last place in the World Championships, some may have forgiven me for considering the ‘DNF’, but I’ll be honest, it never even occurred to me.  My first thought as I ran to transition was ‘What can I do now?  Right in this moment - what is the next step in the process?’  I rode up to the group 20 seconds ahead, caught my breath, asked myself the same mental prompt, and then pushed on.

I eventually ran myself into third place and my highest ever finish at an Elite World Championship.

Sport psychology and talking about your fears isn’t something that comes easy – but I’ve spent years working with some great psychologists, and I’ve learned a lot of mental tricks along the way to get the absolute best out of myself.  It may seem so simple, but those five words: ‘What can I do now?’ really have got me out of some tricky situations.

Staying focused for the duration of a race, whether Sprint or Ironman, can be a task in itself.   Being process focused rather than outcome focused is the key.

I break a race down into a series of processes and have ‘key words’ for each discipline.  Whether it’s ‘run tall’, ‘fast feet’ and ‘relax shoulders’ on the run, or ‘throw arm’ in choppy water on the swim.  By being process focused when factors that are out of your control affect your position,  you’ll realize that winning is an outcome; but to be the best you can be and perform well,  you have to focus on the process.

Recently I punctured in the UK 70.3 when I was leading by around three minutes.  The weather was so cold I just couldn’t get my tyre off.  The TV cameras were in my face and the pressure really got to me.  By the time I’d changed the tyre I was over 12 minutes down.  At that point in the race it would have been very easy to climb in the car and get an early shower.  But by being process focused I set myself the goal of having the fastest run split of the day,  which I did.

If things go wrong you change your goals and adapt to the situation.

As Bevan Docherty has said on numerous occasions: “The pain of regret is far worse than the pain of pushing yourself” and I know I would have regretted a DNF that day.

As it was I learnt something about myself and I believe there is always something to be learned from a race, no matter what the outcome.  You just have to want to learn from the process.  I’ve DNF’d once in my career, I broke a wrist at Takapuna in 2010.  The broken wrist didn’t stop me though, it was the forks that snapped around it that halted my progress!

In Korea in 2003 I crashed coming out of transition in a World Cup, only problem was I didn’t have enough money to pay for my flight home unless I got in the top 15!  I focused on what I could do in that moment, and although my seat post fell off and I had to ride 39kms standing up I managed a top ten placing and made my flight!

The mind, when we’re in control, is an amazing thing.  If we can learn strategies to focus it whilst we’re racing it can lead us to amazing feats.  The flip side to that is if we teach it to give in when the going gets tough,  well I’m sure you get the picture!

I’ve shared some other strategies on my website - www.sweat7.com -  if you’re mental enough to give them a go!

Master thy self….
 

Image caption: Sam at the World Cup in Korea 2003.

Credit: Courtesy ITU